District 3 Commissioner Dave Wissel attended the May 23, 2023, BOCC Work Session via Zoom. Although he’s on record hating Zoom, he said he’d had “…a trip to dizzy land the last couple of days.” He’d been experiencing vertigo for a few days and was “…in a circular motion all the time right now.”
However, his trip to dizzy land did not temper his sarcasm or trademark inappropriate over-the-top aggressiveness.
Among other things, at issue was the substantial rise in property assessments in the county and the likelihood of numerous appeals before the hearing officer(s) via the County Board of Equalization. The Assessor, Monica Jones, was present for the meeting.
We recall Monica Jones unseated Wissel’s nearly forty-year squat in the Assessor’s Office in 2018. How dare she!
“I have no interest in being the Assessor again. Mrs. Jones has that job lock, stock, and barrel. She owns every bit of it, the good, the bad, the ugly.”
That’s what Wissel said at the May 23rd meeting. However, he preceded those comments earlier with the predictable and oft-repeated recounting of his “prior life” as the Assessor, emphasizing how he used to run the office. He also interrogated Jones, asking questions that clearly expressed his belief since she wasn’t mirroring the same processes and prejudices as he did in that office, she was not serving the best interests of the citizens of Park County.
In other words, Wissel believes he and only he knows what’s best for the county’s citizens. Therefore, only his “prior life” processes and prejudices are valid, and he is the only one qualified to construct the master plan for property assessment appeals.
At one point Commissioner Elsner reminded Wissel that Monica Jones is an elected official, in all ways equal to him in conducting the business of her public office. Wissel did not reply. Whether or not he agreed with that is unknown. Well… Unknown to some.
Wissel was sarcastic, patronizing, and rude in his performance—yes, he performs—on May 23, 2023. In fact, public comment focused on his bad behavior during that meeting. The one exception, naturally, was from the South Park Outsiders Head Accountable, who voiced her long-held grievances against Commissioner Elsner for his behavior toward her in public meetings. In effect, she said what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, that if Wissel has to tone it down, Elsner does too. Elsner agreed and committed to doing just that. Wissel blamed his bad behavior on his trip to dizzy land.
The South Park Outsider’s Head Accountable also mentioned an anecdotal point claiming someone had overheard Assessor Jones say something at a meeting of Park County Rebpublicans. As inappropriate as that was during a Commissioner’s Work Session meeting, I suspect another active conspiracy is circulating throughout the nether regions of the county: Assessor Jones will deny every appeal from each property owner regardless of the merits of those appeals. And that’s “in writing!”
Ahem…
I read something online not long ago and thought it incisive: “A recent study suggests that heterosexual men’s narcissism is linked to an adversarial and angry stance toward heterosexual women more than toward other groups. Although narcissists may want to maintain feelings of superiority and power over all people, narcissistic heterosexual men are particularly invested in subordinating heterosexual women.”
Food for thought.
